Post 1.557 on December 11 2024 AND ……3 blogs to go.

—–The Springfield Soaring Championship in N. Z. flown between November 30 and December 7, had 6 tasks out of 7 days, pretty good!!!!! BUT, the weather was not good every day! Host , the Canterbury gliding club, shared news about what happened.
Task 1 was straight away a NICE one for the 19 starting pilots in one class; 475.42 km
Terry Delore in the ASH 25 M “did it” in 4 hours and 58 minutes. They expected all more of this day. Terry had 111 km./h Only 4 pilots flew over 100 km./h and lot’s got a penalty for all kind of “mistakes”.
Task 2 was cancelled. “ Not good weather today and after a wee while the day was cancelled.“
Task 3 was smaller; 292.21 km , but only 8 pilots started NOBODY finished but the daily 330 points went to LS 8 pilot Terry Jones for 80 km distance!
Task 4; 14 went for a flight and the task was 449 km. Team Oakley in the ASH 25 won the day with 136.49 km./h ahead of Terry with 111.23 km./h and Tony van Dyk with 84.78 km./h in ASG 29E.
Task 5 ; got more pilots into action 17 started for a racing task of 265.98 km. and the Oakley ASH 25 was the best again with 111,04 km./h
Task 6; “There was quite a lot of low cloud around but that is burning off now.” was the message for the day. 17 tried hard to fly the 209.68 km and 13 finished. Terry [Jones] in the LS 8 won the day.
Task 7; 340.00 km to finish these comps. 2 Pilots flew over 100 km./h The Oakley team in the ASH 25 [ 103.64 km./h] and Patrick Driessen in the AS33es; 101.85km./h.

Overall scores after 6 out of 7 days.
1. Oakley & Team TF in ASH 25 with 4,422 points.
2. Terry Delore in ASH 25M with 4,198 points.
3. CGC Team BT in DG 1000 S with 3,667 points.

“Great organisation, lovely weather and good company. Tasks on nearly every day, with Thermals, convergence flying, and ridge and wave soaring too.
Thanks everyone for a great time. ” John McCaw

–—–Winter has started here after again one of the warmest months ever and where on the other site of the worlds gliders FLY, …..on this site it ‘s time for winter maintenance.

—–-Getting older is tough, it means also getting earlier pneumonia, even with jabs against flu and corona. So I am at anti biotics now to get my lungs in better condition again.
No worries!!!!

—— FINALLY!!!!! After 3 months the gliders from team South Africa arrived back home from Uvalde.
By now all gliders should be home again.

——One of my Aussie mates is in South Africa at the moment ,where he flew his JS 5, a few days ago for the first time. Whilst being there, he flew on December 4 , a JS 3 TJ/18m from Potchefstroom; 551,32 km @ 167,12 km/h. NOT BAD!!!! Not bad at all.
Great stats too.

Found this gorgeous picture from the new JS5 on the net ,Glider YY , for years is YY the call sign from Bruno Gantenbrink. Guess this might be his new glider!
“From all of us at JS, we wish you happy landings, endless adventures, and unforgettable moments in the air.”

—–In my blogs , the Thermiekbel regularly passed by. It’s the restaurant at the Terlet soaring airfield. The picture in the left corner from my blog, is how it looks now.
This picture below, shows how it was when I was young. I was even at the last party before it closed. Must be 1967!!!!Great times!
All pilots flying the Dutch SGP at Terlet , between Mai 11 and 17 in 2015 , will have a drink and/or meal at the new [old by now] Thermiekbel.

——For my Dutch mates;
The dates of the upcoming 2025 competitions.

–—-More then 40 over 1000 km flights last Monday in Namibia [ up to over 1200 km!!!]and on Sunday even flights over 1.305 in the EB 28. The magic is back in Namibia!
My Dutch mates Alfred Paul and Mark flew 1.253,24 in the Arcus M from Kiripotib and my other friends Rob and his sister Marianne flew from Veronica 1.109.30 km.
4 new Records for team Peter Szabó and Peter Hársfalvi from Hungary flown from Veronica in a Twin Shark; 1. 153.09 km with 136,17 km./h. Also on Monday a real HAMMER DAY!!!!!
Congratulations to our Hungarian mates.
Yesterday another TOP DAY!!!! Flights up to 1.405,79 km by 2 German pilots flying from Veronica with a speed of 155 km./h. Also 3 over 1.300 km flights!

Flying over the deserts and scrub is different than the scene in Worcester, look at this picture from other Dutch mates.

And from Kiripotib

——Spend the weekend in Luxembourg with my family and even Diana who lives in Luxemburg and has a very busy schedule, had time to join in. Grand daughter Indya lives there for 6 months. Cold and wet, but we had a great time! Luxembourg is so beautiful, I forgot all about that.

We visited the Luxembourg American cemetery and Memorial. Later also the German side and it was more than IMPRESSIVE.
5.600 American soldiers are buried here and about 1.5 km further 10 000 Germans mostly very young!

Of course fun as well; dinner in a Lebanese restaurant BAZAAR, and a visit to the Christmas Market with TOO many visiting people, but beautiful.